Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick Talk ‘Cuckoo,’ Horror, and Plot Twists

Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick star as Gretchen, Herr König, and Beth in NEON’s Cuckoo. The movie will be released in theaters on August 9.

Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.

“As far as creatures go too, if there’s creatures involved, [you need] an original creature,” Schafer shared, reflecting on which horror elements stood out about this project. “I think it’s hard after all that’s been done to come up with something original and I definitely found that in this script. I’ve not seen said creatures before.”

“Originality, because a horror lives and dies by its surprises,” Henwick expressed to me. “I think that Cuckoo is super original.”

Stevens added, “I would say a sense of humor. It doesn’t need to be out-and-out funny, but there’s this sort of underlying sense of humor to Tilman and how weird and dark he found this world that is sort of laced in there. I think if something is unremittingly serious and awful, it sort of becomes difficult to watch but if there’s just like a little bit of a little weird kink in the tube, I like that.”